[aprssig] PCsat still going strong.

[Robert Bruninga]

>>> Robert Bruninga 11/9/04 5:13:05 PM >>>
> I have been seeing PCSAT-11 packets on my 144.39 
>APRS iGate that coincide nicely with the predicted passes. 
>And, this is on  a standard isopole at about 10 feel AGL!!
>
>Does PCSAT receive on 145.825 and transmit on 144.39? 
>(And explain why I see it on 144.39).

No.  PCsat has two identical digipeaters.  The A side is up/down
on the Satellite digipeater frequency of 145.825.  The B side
has a downlink on 144.39 but an unpublished uplink freq
for special applications.  Other than a few arctic experiments
and few wilderness travelers, no one is using the B side.

But it the B side does send down an occasional Telemetry 
packet and somewhere in the USA amongst all the
bedlam on 144.39, there is at least one Igate that hears it.
That is how we can see PCsat's telemetry live on the WEB:

http://pcsat.aprs.org 

The B side uses the callsign of PCSAT-11. where as the 
A side (the user side) uses PCSAT-1 (or W3ADO-1 if
it has lost its settings)...

A week ago we sent the command to isolate the A side batteries
from the B side and so it is the B side that is keeping PCsat
alive even if the user load runs down the batteries and causes 
a crash of the A side.  I saw 27 users today....

de Wb4APR, Bob